Exposition and Emotion in Interstellar

by Daniel Stidham

My first impressions upon leaving Interstellar were not gushingly positive. I almost tweeted about how full I felt from being spoon-fed by Chris Nolan for 3 hours, though I held off my quipping in order to give myself time to think about the film. Without giving anything away, I found a major third-act revelation in his new science fiction opus to be frustratingly over-explained. Something that ought to feel like a major discovery, a heavy realization about the very nature of time and space, quickly spills forth from two characters ill-equipped to diagnose or apply it. Before we have a chance to let it sink in, they are already using it to tie plot threads together and push the story forward to its resolution. The result is, ahem, a lack of gravity (I’m sorry). A feeling of weightlessness, if you will (I wouldn’t if I were you). It’s a sense that Nolan is interested in big ideas, but only as long as they provide “whoa” moments to audiences. READ FULL ARTICLE

In 2005, Batman Begins pioneered the now ubiquitous gritty reboot (in film – it was being done in comic books more than a decade prior) and reintroduced a generation to Gotham’s mythic hero in a way that was more realistic than ever before. Then in 2008, the ludicrously popular follow-up The Dark Knight permanently changed our perceptions of what comic book adaptations could be; it was heady, mature, cerebral, and morally complex. It also featured Heath Ledger in a career-defining role that defied expectations. His Joker was initially supposed to carry over into the third part of the trilogy. READ FULL REVIEW

It is not uncommon for me to come away from a movie feeling somewhat cheated. In 2005 it happened quite a bit. Star Wars: Episode III delivered on action but dive-bombed the dialogue; Boogeyman delivered jumps, but no real substance; and War of the Worlds failed to make me care about the characters. In fact many times it failed to make any sense. I actually enjoyed all of these movies in their own ways, but none of them had that total package that warrants a complete endorsement. However, I am happy to say that after seeing Batman Begins, I walked out of the theater feeling satisfied – satisfied that this was Batman done right.FULL REVIEW